Thanks Lena. Well, there is nothing to be done, I have already made the mistake.

Quote Originally Posted by Marcus View Post
How did they address you?
The thing was, I was not sure --- I personally don't care which one people use, in any language. So I absolutely was not paying attention to it, instead I was focussed on trying to understand what they were saying.

I was very polite in every other respect though, so hopefully they understand that I respect them and that I was just not familiar with the etiquette. But with such things, people tend to forget cultural differences and just take offense.

Basically the people in question where people I met at this "sanatorium" in Belarus.
It was a woman a few years older than me (not a problem with her, I am sure), a couple also older than me but not very old - late forties, I'd say. Super nice Russians from Murmansk. It's possible that the husband thought it was rude. Plus some women in their 50s and 60s. I think I was sensible enough to stick with "вы" with them, but I was really unsure about it.

I went to some dances, went walking and generally hung out with these people. For me, the polite form is something to use at work, or with some really important or very old person. To use it with people you socialise with is pretentious and rather silly in Swedish. I thought - oh Russians are cool and relaxed, they probably are not as stiff with stuff like this as Germans etc.... Seems I was mistaken.

"может, перейдём на ты?"
Ok I will use that from now. It sounds really old fashioned to me.... But if that is the practice I will definitely do it.